跟着《经济学人》学英语 ▏之五(2)——杰里米•科尔宾:英国最
译者按:《经济学人》杂志向来以其独特的视角,透彻的分析和地道的英语而闻名。每年托福和雅思考试中的很多阅读文章都出自这本杂志。最近一篇上了财经头条的文章《我们正在进入“谈资”比“名牌包”更贵的时代!》中指出,阅读《经济学人》是当今国外新兴的精英阶层“非炫耀性文化消费”的一个标志。跟着《经济学人》学习朴素准确且高逼格的英语,将事半功倍。
本期《跟着<经济学人>学英语》选取本周《经济学人》(2017年9月23日)的社论文章,中英双语对照并讲解生词。因为社论篇幅较长,将分为四篇文章以便阅读。本篇是本周系列的第二篇。译者水平不到之处,欢迎大家批评指点。
本周系列各篇的链接如下:
(1)www.jianshu.com/p/8b87344982d0
(2)www.jianshu.com/p/3860c07fff90
(3)www.jianshu.com/p/52ee1a79ce05
(4)www.jianshu.com/p/295dd211ccb1
(接上篇,上篇的链接:跟着《经济学人》学英语 ▏之五(1))
Good Corbyn, bad Corbyn
The manifesto launched this spring was insipid and backward-looking, dusting off tried and discarded ideas. But it would set Britain back years, not decades.The planned rise in corporation tax—a bad idea at a time when Brexit Britain needs to cling on to what business it can—would take the rate back only to its level in 2011. A proposed minimum wage of £10 ($13.50) per hour would be among the steepest in Europe, but not drastically higher than that planned by the Tories. Abolishing tuition fees would damage universities and mainly benefit the well-off, while nationalising the railways and some utilities would make them less efficient and starve them of investment. These are bad ideas, but not the policies to turn a country to rubble. If Labour combined them with an approach to Brexit that was less self-harming than that of the Tories—some of whom are still gunning for the kamikaze "no deal" outcome—its prospectus could even be the less batty of the two.
好的科尔宾,坏的科尔宾
今年春天工党发表的那份竞选纲领是淡而无味且缺乏前瞻性的,重温了一遍过去尝试过和抛弃了的想法。然而这最多只会让英国后退几年,而不是几十年。比如计划上调公司税——在英国脱欧必须紧紧抓住一切可以抓住的东西之际,这是一个糟糕的主意——但毕竟计划也只是把税率上调到2011年的水平。建议把最低工资提高到10英镑每小时(相当于13.5美元每小时,或者90元人民币每小时),虽然这个数字在整个欧洲范围内来看已经很高,但毕竟也并没有比保守党建议的高出太多。取消大学学费的计划会对各个大学造成损害,使富人获益更多;国有化铁路及其它一些公用事业会降低效率且造成投资不足。这些都算不上好主意,然而也并不会让一个国家变得一团糟。如果工党能够将这些政策和一个不像保守党的脱欧计划那么致命的脱欧计划结合在一起——保守党中的有些人现在还在试图达成自杀性的“没有结果”的结果——那么其前景至少应该会比保守党疯狂的做法要好一些。
单词:
insipid: 形容词,清淡的,无趣的。
abolish: 动词,废除,取消。
nationalise: 动词,国有化。美国写成nationalize。
utility: 名词,公用事业。
starve: 动词,挨饿,饿死。这里是比喻用法。
rubble: 名词,碎石,瓦砾。
Kamikaze: 来自日语神风特攻队。这里是形容词,神风特攻队的,自杀性的。
batty: 形容词,古怪的,疯狂的,乖张的。
词组:
dust off: 重温,预备好待用。
cling on to: 紧紧抱住,不能放弃。
gun for: 带枪搜索,寻机伤害。
But there is another plan for government, scattered among Mr Corbyn's own statements, which would do serious and lasting harm. Since becoming leader, he has called for a maximum wage as well as a minimum one. He has proposed "people's quantitative easing", under which the government would order the independent Bank of England to print money to fund public investments. Labour is committed to preserving Britain's nuclear weapons: Mr Corbyn is disarmingly clear about his desire to scrap them. Though the party's policy is to stay in NATO, Mr Corbyn has for decades called for it to disband; last year he refused to say whether, as prime minister, he would defend a NATO ally under attack from Russia.
然而,从科尔宾自己的陈述中零零碎碎的显露出来的,是另一个不同的施政计划,而这个施政计划很可能会对英国造成严重而长久的伤害。自从成为工党领袖以后,科尔宾提出在最低工资之外还应该加上一个最高工资。他提出了所谓的“人民量化宽松”政策,让独立于政府之外的英格兰银行(译者注:英国的中央银行)印钱来支持政府投资。工党承诺将保留英国的核武器,而科尔宾非常清楚的表示他希望放弃核武器。虽然工党的政策是继续待在北约之中,然而科尔宾几十年来一直呼吁解散北约;去年的时候他拒绝回答,如果成为首相,他是否会在俄国的攻击下维护北约联盟。
单词:
scatter: 动词,分散,散开。
disarmingly: 副词,使人消除敌意地。
scrap: 动词,废弃,放弃。
NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization的缩写,北大西洋公约组织。
disband: 动词,解散。
词组:
call for: 要求,提倡。
be committed to: 决心,承诺。
(待续。)
译者注:本文译自《经济学人》杂志2017年9月23日的社论。《经济学人》杂志上的所有文章均不署名。
原文链接:
https://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21729431-labour-track-rule-britain-who-rules-labour-party-jeremy-corbyn-britains-most
“本译文仅供个人研习、欣赏语言之用,谢绝任何转载及用于任何商业用途。本译文所涉法律后果均由本人承担。本人同意简书平台在接获有关著作权人的通知后,删除文章。”